Democratic Civil War Over Energy: Green demands to stop drilling for natural gas come at an awkward time

This new demand could not come at a more awkward time for the party. Under fire for ObamaCare and the economy, scores of vulnerable Democrats are rushing to natural gas and drilling as political safe harbors. Supporting fracking allows them to claim they are in favor of more jobs, cheaper energy and rising incomes. Supporting natural-gas exports allows them to look responsive to the Ukraine crisis, or at least more responsive than their unpopular president. It helps, too, that this puts them on the same page as the significant majority of Americans who support more drilling (and pipelines).

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The left's new fracking demand is not so easily avoidable. The White House is technically in favor of natural gas, has reaped its environmental and economic upside, and its candidates are coalescing around drilling and export expansion. The president's green troops now demand an end to this. To crack down on fracking would be economically and politically dumb. Not cracking down risks tipping his green base over the edge.